The Ghost and The Haunted Mansion: A Haunted Bookshop Mystery

steps.
    “April Briggs, you’re under arrest for the murder of Miss Timothea Todd. You have the right to remain silent . . .”
    As Ciders finished reading April her rights, Jim Wolfe opened one eye, then both. He glared at Eddie. “Am I done ?”
    Eddie shook his head. “Not by a long shot. We’re going to book you, too— and get a statement.”
    Jim Wolfe smacked his bloodred lips and ran the back of his hand along his gore-soaked mouth. “What is this stuff anyway?”
    “My family’s pizza sauce,” Eddie replied. “Delicious, isn’t it?”
    “Come on,” the chief said to Wolfe.
    Sheepishly, the construction hunk rose and Bull McCoy cuffed him. Without an escort, Jim simply followed Chief Ciders out the front door.
    I stepped under the chandelier and gave a thumbs-up to the surveillance camera. “Good job, Leo. You can come in now.” Then I faced Eddie. “You were great, too. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
    Eddie smiled. “Face it, baby, we make a good team.”
    My eyes widened. “ What did you say?”
    But Eddie was interrupted by Bull McCoy. “We found Wolfe right where you said he’d be, Mrs. McClure. He was boozing it up at the girly bar with Bud Napp.”
    “Oh, jeez,” I muttered. “Do me a favor and don’t tell my aunt Sadie about the girly bar part.”
    Your auntie’s been around the block, doll. She don’t need mollycoddling.
    “Jack!” I shouted in my head. The sweet breeze was back! I couldn’t believe it. His presence was swirling around my body, brushing coolly past my cheek. “You’re here! You didn’t fade away!”
    You ought to know me better than that, baby. I always watch my partner’s back.
    “Oh, yeah? Since when? I’ve been trying to reach you all night!”
    And I was with you all night, too, honey. Came awake when all those “Quibbling” friends of yours were spouting theories.
    “Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you answer me?”
    ’Cause you didn’t need me, that’s why. Just like that little boy of yours, I figured it was time you took a test flight all on your own.
    “I get it.” I raised an eyebrow. “So how did I do?”
    You passed, partner. With flying colors.
    I smiled wide just then and Eddie caught it. “Gotta go, Pen,” he said with a smile of his own. “I want to be in on April’s interrogation.” Then he pointed at the cardboard cutout on the steps, the one dressed in Miss Todd’s clothes, wig, and tiara. “You want that back?”
    “The Zara Underwood standee? Why? You need that for evidence?”
    “No. I’d like to have it.”
    “I don’t think your wife would be too happy about that.”
    “She won’t see it. I thought the guys at the station would get a kick out of it. Most of them are reading Bang, Bang Baby .”
    “I guess I’m in the clear now,” Seymour said. “Hey, Eddie, thanks for your help.”
    “Don’t mention it,” Eddie said.
    “Oh, and Bull!” Seymour called. “One more thing. Something I owe you.”
    “What is it now , Tarnish?”
    I heard a smack, and saw Bull’s wide butt hit the plush area rug. Seymour stood over him, shaking his just-used fist.
    Stunned, Bull rubbed his chin.
    Eddie glanced at Seymour, then glared at Bull. “What are you laying around for, Deputy?” he barked. “We’ve got work to do!”

EPILOGUE
     
    Don’t hurry away, old man. We like you around. We get so few private dicks in our house.
    —The Long Goodbye , Raymond Chandler, 1953
     
     
     
     
    “OKAY, MOM, THE dumps are stocked up. What do you want me to do next?”
    Spencer’s face was red, this time from exertion and not the mild sunburn he’d brought home from camp last week. He’d been busy since eight this morning, first hauling regular and recyclable garbage to their respective bins, then restocking the picked-over displays.
    “A new standee arrived yesterday,” I said. “You can put it together.”
    Spencer grinned and saluted. “Okey-dokey,” he said before bounding off to the stockroom.
    Sadie appeared at my shoulder. “Where’d he get ‘okey-dokey?’ That’s not the sort of slang I’ve heard youngsters use. That’s an old-fashioned phrase.”
    “Oh, he’s probably just watching those classic black-and-white cop shows again on the Intrigue Channel.”
    “I see,” Sadie said.
    The front door buzzed before I could give it any more thought. I moved to the front of the store and saw Eddie Franzetti in a sharp blue suit, waving at me from the other side of the